This domain pre-dates the whole brony thing.

I really think we missed out on a whole genre of teen scavenger hunt films. It seems like a concept ripe for exploitation, with a young and diverse cast, stupid humor and a simple yet infinitely flexible story. Who knows, maybe there’s still time? But maybe it’s good that there aren’t more films like this, because I doubt they could ever live up to the majesty of Midnight Madness.

We had the Disney channel when I was a kid, and I’m sure that’s where I first saw this thing. But my memory was never completely clear on the film itself, and I went years conflating it with something else. I had even wondered at one point whether the whole idea was a false memory. I did eventually track down the movie again, and it was every bit as cool as I had built it up to be.

The movie starts out with a rocking disco theme and two chicks on roller skates. Yeah, pretty great! I really fancy the blond girl, Kirsten Baker. She has nude scenes in Gas Pump Girls and Friday the 13th part 2, fyi. Anyway, the roller girls are delivering invitations to different college cliques to compete in a citywide scavenger hunt created by some guy named Leon. I’m not sure why the roller chicks are with Leon, but more power to the guy.

So the whole thing is basically a competition between caricatures of social groups: jocks, sorority girls, rich kids,nerds and the normals. Of particular note are Michael J fox as the snot-nosed brother of the main character and Eddie Deezen as the leader of the nerds.

I had forgotten just how cool Eddie Deezen was until I watched this again. He’s one of the few celebrities I think I’d geek out on if I saw him in person. He might be most famous for his work in Grease and Grease 2, but younger people might recognize his voice as that of Mandark from Dexter’s Laboratory.

Each of these teams have to race across the city and solve inane puzzles to get the clue to the next location with another inane puzzle. Wacky misadventures ensue. I’ll fully admit that my love for this movie rests entirely on some stupid nostalgia trip, but at least it’s not Top Gun- that’s some whack shit right there.

Besides, any film which features a guy who’s head looks like a penis is good by me.